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Is my starter on the way out or....????

Was charging my car battery directly through the battery terminals in the trunk (in my garage - 50 DEGF). Today before going to work I removed the charger and reconnected the negative terminal.

1) Cranked the car up and the starter starts coughing and moaning. Nothing. Turned it off.

2) Hmm..I put my foot on the gas pedal and turned the key. There is coughing and moaning again but the car starts up! I have to keep the RPM's at 2500 to keep it from dying. The service engine light comes on.

Crap - now what? Not knowing what is going on (don't have a code reader) I decided not to drive the car in these southern snowy conditions and turned it off.

3) A little voice on my shoulder tells me to try it for a third time - car starts right up and the SEL goes off!

Re: Is my starter on the way out or....????

How old is the battery; Why were you charging it? Just because you put a charger on it for a time doesn't mean it's in tip-top shape. The first start followed by immediately turning it off could have left the engine flooded, so you needed to give it some throttle to keep it going on the second start.
'03 525i Sapphire Blu/Grey, SP, Nav
'02 325it Orient Blu./Grey, SP, Nav
'98 323is Arctic Sil./Blk, SP
'95 M3 Cosmos Blk./Blk

You may want to try a hard re-boot...

before taking it in for service. With the battery disconnected, turn on the ignition to pos. 2 for 30 seconds to disipate any stored power in the systems. Re-connect the battery and start it up.

You may just have had a glich from all the connecting & disconnecting during the charging. You can then see if the code is still there. I agree with JKRIT that the rough idle and CEL may be due to flooding or fouling of the O2 sensors.
Ed CT
1998 528i (aka, best car I ever owned!)
5-Speed
Aspen Silver
Aubergine Leather
Zeckhausen CDV
Nokia CK-7
D-Con Cache on Fuel Pump Cover